A creative duo from Sweden, consisting of stylist Nathalie Myrberg and photographer Matilda Hildingsson. Nature, sustainability and slow living is the focus of the duo’s melancholic and poetic idiom.Contact: info@babesinboyand.Instagram:@babes_in_boyland

This saturday we took the car to visit Pelle and Linnéa, who’s got a lovely little summer cottage a couple of miles outside of Västerås. This summer we’re going to visit some other people in their summer homes, and this is the first post of the series.

The homestead is built 1832 and this is the third summer Pelle and Linnéa lives in their cottage. When they moved in, noone had seen to the renovation or lived in it for 70 years and for the last 20 years it’s main purpose had been for storage. So, since they set foot here, they’ve been quite busy.

Linnéa started by showing us the local scenery. We picked some flowers, said hello to the farm’s Hedemora hens that were mocking about and looked at the newly started foundation for the extension of the cottage (that will turn the cottage into a house). Suddenly it started to rain so we hurried to shelter.

The homestead turned out to be just as cozy as you’d want it to be. hardwood floors, working wood burning iron stove, second hand and auction findings, delicate lace curtains, kitchen sofa and great rag carpets.

For a while we were planning to have “fika” under the apple tree, but since it was more autumn weather then summer we decided to stay inside. Still cozy with lit candles and iron stove at the end of June.

Hi Linnéa! Tell us about your first renovation. What was your thoughts and what have you done?
We started the renovation of the homestead about three years ago, when it hit us that we wanted to spend our weekends and summers there. At the time we had no plans to use it as a permanent home, that idea came much later. The house hadn’t been inhabitated by anyone for 70 years and the latest 20 years noone had cared for it and it was used as a storage. We started by clearing high grass around the homestead, because it was overgrown. Some floors that was ruined from moist has been fixed and while doing so we found a small cellar. We plan on making it usable at a later stage. Floors, ceilings and walls have been painted and skirting boards have been changed. The chimney was rebuilt at loft level since it was totally ruined. The kitchen stove was replaced and rebricked. We also rebricked the open stove in the chamber and painted it with glue paint, which is a non-toxic alternative. The places that wasn’t already covered with artificial paint has been painted and renovated with care with organic and natural alternatives, like linseed oil paint mixed with pigment from Pelle’s grand dad which used to be a painter.

When did you realize you wanted to live in the house permanently?
At first we were planning on building a whole new house from scratch, at a whole other place and use the cottage as a home until it was done. But that plan changed when we started to expect a child. We realized that we wanted to get out to the countryside as soon as possible and keep the costs down.

That’s when we came up with the solution to actually live in the house and build an extension so we could live there permanently. The homestead is in my parents farm but is going to be changed to our own lot. We got in contact with an architect who helped us with a great planning and then the work with getting all the paperwork that should be filed before building anything started. It took alot more time then we expected. Come June we got an OK to start buildning and we could start the building of the foundation. It’s going to be about 55 square meters large extension with a kitchen, bed room and bath room. The old part from 1832 will be kept as it is for as far as possible. It do need some added isolation and for the floors and walls though. The old part will contain our living room, office and child chambers.

Tell us a bit about the extension and your thoughts when it comes to renovation and adding to the house.
We want to build using only natural and ecological material, something that has been proved really hard with today’s rules and regulations that exist. Unfortunately you have to compromise a bit, but you can still use mainly organic material. Hundred percent organic isolation was hard to find since even the natural alternatives contains some questionable material. The old wood part of the house will be isolated with lin while the new part will have a compromise with an environment friendlish alternative that we aren’t totally satisfied with. For better temperature inside of the new house part we’re going to use processed clay from the farm. As much as possible of all the wood that will be used as panel, floor and walls is from the farm’s forest. Most of the wood was chopped by Pelle last winter, and some are from his childhood home in Värmland, where his parents have a farm. We’re doing lots of work ourselves to keep costs down, and only bring in help in lack of time or niche competence.

In the summer the house is heated by solarpanels and in winter by fire in a watermantled kitchen stove used for heat and warm water. We take the wood from the nearby forest. A general thought about the whole process is to use second hand material as far as possible. Alot is heritage, called in at an auction, bought at second hand stores or from nearby farms. The windows and doors that we’re going to buy are from a nearby farm that wasn’t using them anymore. You can find most without buying new stuff, the best choice for both our wallet and the environment. It’s alot to learn and to process when it comes to alternative material, so alot of time is spent looking up information and learning new stuff. The easiest would be to just take the car to a large carpenter store and just buy everything needed, but if you’re keen on using natural material and having an environmental perspective you need to push it a bit more.

What does the future hold, except for the extension? What do you plan on doing with your own lot?
Our thought considering having our own lot with cropfields is to become independent in terms of growing vegetables, fruits and berries. We’re already growing in a quite large area that gives us onions, potatoes, beans, cabbage, sugar peas, salad, squash and some other veggies. All organic of course. In the long term we might get some animals to add some extra life to the farm. The farm has great potential, it would be fun to be able to work from the farm and spread the environmental thinking, maybe as a bed&breakfast, or running an eco shop from here. We’ll just have to wait and see, now it’s building time and preparing to become parents!

Linnéa Pettersson
28 years old
Photographer niched towards portraits, lifestyle and freelance photography. Linnéa is also behind the jewellery brand Anna Linnéa which integrates photography in jewellery design. She wears some of the jewellery in the photos.linneapettersson.seannalinnea.se

Pelle Holst
28 years old
Artist, working with “gycklargruppen Trix” in Västerås.gycklarna.com